The Differences Between House and Home
by Skier Chick
Summary: Stephanie wakes up one morning and gets a surprise phone call that turns her life around. Possibly Babe. Slight Morelli bashing.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 God's On My Side**

**Steph's P.O.V.**

I woke up to the horrible sound of my alarm clock and promptly chucked it across the room. I groaned and rolled over, trying to get back to sleep but to no avail. It was about 90°F outside and 95° in my apartment and it's only 6:00 in the morning. I hate summer in Trenton; I mean sure I can get a nice tan and all…but the heat is killer! I sighed, giving up on any hope of more sleep and rolled onto my back. I rubbed my stomach while lamenting about how horrible my life was.

I was working for Rangeman and Vinnie, which did keep me from going broke, but I was still hurting for money. I love my job there but for the past two months it has been doing nothing but make me more and more depressed. My boss, Ranger, has made it perfectly clear that he wanted nothing more from me other than a job well done, entertainment, and some good sex now and then. (Although we've only slept with each other twice, and I've been doing my best not to go back down that road again, it only gets me sent back to Morelli.) I wanted more than that, and let's be frank, what girl wouldn't.

Anyway, enough about Ranger…for now…onto Morelli, the bastard of a cop who had been cheating on me with stupid Terry Gilman. I broke up with him two and a half months ago after I caught the two of them together (a.k.a. one on top of the other, on Joe's couch) when I had come "home" from work early as a surprise. I was now permanently done with Joe, not that him and my mother haven't tried to get us back together, but I wasn't having any of it. Especially not now (but I'll get to the reason for that in a little bit). I had yet to tell Ranger about this, although knowing him, he already knew anyway. I'm sure he thought that we would get together again soon though and that this was just another one of our little spats. (See _he_ just keeps popping up, I can't think about anything without it coming back to _him_.) I doubted that anyone but Terry, Morelli, and I knew the real truth. Morelli had done a marvelous job covering it all up, making sure to make me look like the bad guy; and I just didn't care enough to set the record straight. I doubt anyone would believe me anyways.

I sighed again at the disaster I call my life, and pulled up my shirt, revealing the very small but slowly growing lump that resided underneath. When I first realized what had happened I was terrified and disgusted with it, but as it started growing I fell in love, so now I was terrified and in love with it. Ok, so yes, I am three months pregnant and yes, I'm positive it's _his_. And no, _he_ does not know, but think of it this way, if a guy who is adamant that he "doesn't do relationships", and states that he "doesn't want kids" got you pregnant, would you go running off to tell him? No? Yeah, I didn't think so. I knew that I would have to tell him at some point, but I was terrified at what would happen and have been putting it off for as long physically possible (pun intended). And since I didn't want Ranger to know _no one _knew.

At that moment, the phone decided to ring. I glanced at the clock. Wow, 7:30 already! And, with, much coaxing forced myself out of bed and trudged over to my cell which I had left on the kitchen table.

"Hello?" I answered, fully expecting it to be Ranger saying I was needed for some sort of job which would totally ruin my Friday (of course I have been turning down all distraction jobs for obvious reasons, but still).

"Good Morning, this is Mrs. Tracey Smith calling to speak to a Ms. Stephanie Plum," said a voice that seemed way too chipper for this time of day.

"This is she." I told her, trying to guess what the hell this could be about.

"Wonderful. I am calling about your grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Plum's, will. I am, or rather was, their lawyer." I was shocked; my parents had all but disowned my grandparents on my dad's side. I haven't heard from them in at least ten years. I didn't even know they had died!

"Yes, what about it?" I got straight to the point, trying to hide my shock.

"Well they left you a…few things." Now I was curious, what could they have possibly have left me? "Including their houses in Maine and Massachusetts which are fully owned by them so there's no more mortgages on them, and $2,000,000; you are also fully entitled to everything on both properties and the speed boat that is currently in storage."

"What!? Wow! You can't be serious! That's amazing!" I was ecstatic and yet still completely miffed at why they would leave it all to me. Wait, no I'm not, Dad was an only child and since him and mom disowned them and Valerie hated them their only other living relative that still loved them was me. I had always felt horrible about what my parents did and had done my best to stay in touch with them. My grandparents had always been very well off as far as money goes though, so they didn't really need any help from me. (Not that I could've offered it anyway.)

"All you have to do is stop by my office, located in Boston to sign some papers and it'll be official." She told me.

"I can be there Monday, does that work for you?"

"Yes it does, I have an opening at 10:30. I work for _Smith and Smith Law Firm_ and I look forward to seeing you. Have a good day."

"You too," I said before hanging up, glad to finally be talking to someone with phone manners. I stood in my kitchen for a second, trying to take everything in. I couldn't believe what had just happened and I was psyched, I could finally get out of Trenton and I no longer had to worry about money.

My mood stayed high through my morning routine and almost all the way to the Bond Agency. But just as I was pulling into the parking lot with the dozen donuts that have become routine, it finally hit me that my grandparents were gone. And just like that I broke down sobbing uncontrollably.

I sat in the car for almost ten minutes before I was able to regain some semblance of control, and even then there were still some tears sliding down my cheeks. (Thank God for waterproof Mascara, which I've been wearing ever since I figured out I was pregnant. Hormones are not fun.)

Walking into the bonds office I set the donuts down on Connie's desk and grabbed a Boston Crème before sitting down, taking a second to wonder if they taste better in Boston. Guess I'll just have to wait to find out.

"Hey Steph, thank God you brought donuts!" Lula exclaimed helping herself to two.

"Are you ok? What's wrong?" Connie asked, staring intently at my tearstained face.

"What happened? Was it Batman? 'Cause I'll beat him up for you." Lula said, turning to look at me for the first time.

"No….I just found out that my Grandparents on my dad's side died. And I mean I haven't seen them in ten years, but they're still my Grandparents." I was able to hold it together this time, but just barely.

"Oh Steph I'm so sorry!" They exclaimed together.

"Thanks," I gave them a slight smile, and I was suddenly ready to leave, I didn't want to talk about this. "Now I have to go meet with their lawyer and get everything settled. So I'm going to be gone for a while."

At that point Vinnie came storming out of his office, "If you even thinking about taking a vacation you're FIRED!" He was yelling and I was seriously tempted to cover my ears.

"Come on Vinnie. Give her a break, her Grandparents just died!" Connie tried to reason with him, and I saw Lula reaching into her purse, probably for her gun.

I made up my mind right then and there about a few things:

I _really_ didn't feel like dealing with this right now.

I didn't give a crap about my BEA job anymore.

I was not going to be coming back to Trenton in the remotely near future.

I wasn't going to tell them about my new found riches.

"No Connie, its fine, in fact…I QUIT!" And with that I stormed out of the bonds office, for quite possibly the last time, and sped over to Rangeman.

**A/N: Please leave a review to tell me what you think!**


	2. Chapter 2 Saying GoodbyeKinda

**A/N: Thanks for all the reviews! They were greatly appreciated.**

**And yes they were Vinnie's grandparents too, but the whole family minus Steph had disowned them. (It will be explained more later in the story)**

**Chapter 2 Saying Goodbye…Kinda**

Pulling into RangeMan, it went straight up to the little cubicle that Ranger had given me, saying hi to the guys as I passed. Sitting down, I didn't bother getting to work right away; instead I wrote a letter to Ranger.

_Dear Ranger,_

_ I know you require a 2 week notice. And I am very sorry, but I cannot give you that. Today is my last day. I have decided that Trenton is just not where I'm supposed to be and that I have to move on with my life. I have gotten everything I needed out of this place which I have called home for so long and I would like to thank you for everything you have done for me. Maybe we will see each other again at some point, but who really knows? So I guess this is goodbye. And since this is goodbye, I figure it cannot hurt for me to finally get this off my chest…I love you Ranger. I have for a long time now, and it's ok if I'm not what you need or want in a partner. All I hope, is that you find what you need out of life and someone amazing to share it with._

_Love,_

_Stephanie_

Finishing up, I was tempted to add that I was pregnant, but thought better. I didn't want him tracking me down because he felt responsible, and I especially didn't want to just be another child support check. Now that I had money, I didn't even have to worry about how I was going to provide for my baby.

I spent the rest of the day writing similar, very unspecific, letters to my family and few other close friends. These I would just mail to them before I left. Rangers letter I decided to leave in an envelope on my desk along with the key fob he had given me what felt like so long ago. I could just leave it on his desk, but I was hoping that by leaving it on mine, he wouldn't find it until Monday.

When it was finally time to go home I got up, leaving all my personal items I kept there where they were. I knew they had trackers in them and there wasn't anything important enough for me to take the time to take them out.

Actually, the more I thought about it, none of my possessions were really worth taking to Massachusetts. I mean there was Rex, but I was nervous about taking him too, just because I wouldn't put it past Ranger to have microchiped the poor little guy. When I got back to my apartment I was still trying to figure out what to do when a new thought came to mind. Opening up my purse I took the other letters out of them, I added to Mary Lou's, asking her to please pick Rex up from my super Dylan. I knew the kids would love to have a pet and I was sure that Dylan wouldn't mind taking care of him for a few days; for some beer of course.

Before I had a chance to really think about what leaving Rex behind meant, I grabbed the six pack of beer out of my fridge and Rex's cage before heading downstairs again. I knew that leaving Rex behind was the best thing for me, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Though truth be told, I was really more of a dog person, maybe I'll get one when I get settled down in my new life.

After a quick chat with Dylan, I walked back up to my apartment with empty arms. Looking at the clock I realized it was already 6. Calling Pino's I ordered two large meatball subs, figuring I could have one tomorrow for lunch since it may be the last time I can ever have eat from there. While I was waiting for my food, I took huge trash bags and started stuffing all of my belongings into them. I was planning on donating all of it to the Epilepsy Foundation, which had a drop-off right down the street from here.

After I ate dinner I finished packing everything up and then loaded it into my car. I took a brief second to recognize how sad it was that I could pack all of my belongings up in just a few hours before driving away to drop it off. When that was done I ran into the mall and bought a Vera Bradley wristlet to keep my drivers license and some cash in. I also grabbed a pair of shorts, underwear, a bra, a tank top, and toiletries. I would change out of the clothes I was in now and wear these for my trip since I knew they didn't have trackers on them. (I know I probably seem paranoid with all of this, but I've learned over the years to _never_ underestimate Ranger.)

When I got home I brushed my teeth and took a shower and lay down to sleep on the couch. (I had donated all of my sheets.) Just before I fell asleep I realized that I couldn't take my car to Boston. Not only did I know for a fact it had trackers on it, but there was no chance it could make it all that way. At that point though, I was so tired that I didn't care and a few minutes later I was fast asleep.

I woke up at 6 the next morning, (it was painful, trust me) and after taking a quick shower I left my apartment with my key sitting on the kitchen table, just like Dylan had asked. When I got outside I threw the clothes I had been wearing yesterday in the dumpster before driving away.

I stopped at my bank and took out all the money in my account, which was only $300. Next I stuck all the letters in a mailbox. Then I did something I had promised myself years ago that I would never do again, I hotwired a nice looking car in the parking lot and then hopped on the highway. I didn't even look back as I left Trenton behind.

**A/N: Please keep those reviews coming!**


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